Friday, April 30, 2010

How is this for gall? Soccer Dad reports: "The Iraqis have shown how much they value the 'diversity' of their past. They've exiled their Jews, punished a fellow citizen for seeking normalization with Israel and are erasing the Jewish origins of Ezekiel. The Iraqis must not be allowed to regain possession of the Jewish archives."

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Remember when the Boy Scouts used to earn their merit badges in subjects such as first aid, wilderness survival, and good citizenship? I heard on the news this morning that they've added an important new skill -- video gaming!

Here's Soccer Dad on Jesse Jackson; and Kathryn Jean Lopez on a story you won't believe. The hysteria over illegal immigration is all about getting more Democratic voters, as is the sudden discussion about making Puerto Rico our 51st state (My mother summed up the latter perfectly in just 3 words: 'In mittern drinnen'."

Sunday, April 25, 2010

I hope today's rally has attracted a large crowd of supporters -- and some media coverage as well. Update: Haaretz is reporting that over 10,000 people attended despite the rain; click here for an account and photos from Atlas Shrugs.

Greg Crosby has written a good column on capital punishment: "If I were king of the world, I would say that murderers should receive punishment which is equal to the level of pain and suffering that they perpetrated on their victim. No more, no less. Equal rights. In my view, it is not cruel and unusual to give the murderer the same thing that he gave his victim. Doesn't that make sense?" Yes, it does!

Monday, April 19, 2010

They were talking on the news the other night about reading terrorists their "rights". Unfortunately, nobody thought to bring up the fact that the terrorists never read Daniel Pearl his rights...before they beheaded him! This sort of liberal thinking drives me crazy, as does Obama's continuing delay in deciding on where Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should be tried. What's there to think about? How about Alcatraz? Anywhere but New York!

Friday, April 16, 2010

"Did you hear what happened in Wigmore Hall the other day? “The Wigmore,” as locals know it, is a London concert hall and sort of a shrine of music. The Jerusalem Quartet was giving a concert, and anti-Israeli demonstrators disrupted it. They staggered their disruptions so that the concert could never proceed with security. The critic Norman Lebrecht has a column on the affair, here. It’s often hard for Israelis to move about in the world. I have athletes and musicians in particular in mind. Wherever they go, they are harassed or threatened with harassment. (Of course, at the Munich Olympics, athletes were murdered. Talk about harassment!) Earlier this year, a female tennis player was playing a match in New Zealand. Protesters shouted at her throughout the match. She won anyway, in a wonderful display of sangfroid. And I’ll tell you this: The only time I have seen security screening at Carnegie Hall, ever, has been when the Israel Philharmonic is playing. (Original name of the orchestra: the Palestine Orchestra, of course — Bronislaw Huberman founded it; Toscanini conducted it.) The goal of the anti-Israel crowd — which is perhaps too big to be called a “crowd” — is clear: to make Israel a pariah state, just as South Africa was in apartheid days. Not for nothing did our 39th president, a Nobel peace laureate, title one of his books “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” You remember how people would hound that trackster, Zola Budd? They do that to Israelis as well. In my view, standing up for them — the Israelis — is a plain imperative of our time. It is part and parcel of standing up for humanity and civilization. And let me say one more thing about the Wigmore Hall affair. The anti-Israeli, pro-Palestinian disrupters? Jews — I’m tempted to say “of course.” In every generation, there are such people. David Pryce-Jones talks about Dr. Hans-Joachim Schoeps, who had a group that was kind of a Jews for Hitler. Some liked to joke that its slogan was “Raus mit Uns” — “Out with Us.” And, as DP-J says, the “Raus mit Uns” spirit is always alive and well."

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Investors Business Daily has a good editorial on Obama's attitude toward Israel:

"War On Terror: Are we still Israel's staunch ally? Or do we blame the Jewish state for Islamist violence? An increasingly anti-Israeli U.S. government cannot have it both ways. We now have a president who buys into the longtime Islamist propaganda claim that the lack of an Israeli-Palestinian agreement is causing Islamist terrorism....You can't be against the terrorists and against Israel too. Yet that is exactly the new U.S. policy."

"I miss the swaggering cowboy. He may have been tongue-tied; he may have screwed up with an errant backrub, but he didn’t bow to royalty, he didn’t give embarrassing gifts to allies, he didn’t show the Dalai Lama the back door. He never said to a visiting ally (paraphrased) 'I’m gonna go have dinner with Laura, and if you decide to obey me, I’ll be around.' He didn’t shove his finger in the face of another country’s prime minister. But he was considered the boor."

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Check out the latest Argus Hamilton column, which includes items such as this one: "The White House welcomed Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday. The U.S. is trillions of dollars in debt to Communist China. It's hard to believe that twenty-six years ago Nancy Reagan was nearly run out of the White House for borrowing dresses."

"We have indeed stood up for everyone else. When will we stand up for our brothers and sisters living in the Jewish state of Israel? If Obama is seeking to build a siege ramp around Israel, the Jews of modern Israel will not commit suicide. They are willing to negotiate a settlement with the Palestinians, but they will not allow themselves to be bullied into following self-destructive policies. To those who call me an alarmist, I reply that I'll be happy to apologize if I am proven wrong. But those who stand silently by and watch the Obama administration abandon Israel, to whom will they apologize?"

"The Davey family's £815-a-week state handouts pay for a four-bedroom home, top-of-the-range mod cons and two vehicles including a Mercedes people carrier. Father-of-seven Peter gave up work because he could make more living on benefits. Yet he and his wife Claire are still not happy with their lot. With an eighth child on the way, they are demanding a bigger house, courtesy of the taxpayer."

Monday, April 12, 2010

Did anyone see "Diary of Anne Frank" on PBS last night? I started out nitpicking (the actress who played Anne reminded me of Elizabeth Taylor as a child but sounded like Sonya Jackson from "EastEnders"; Margot seemed to be portrayed as being younger than Anne rather than older) and ended up being completely overcome with emotion, particularly by that wordless last scene.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Here's a wonderful article about the truly great golfers -- and great men of character -- like Palmer, Nicklaus, and Player. I've always said that while people respect Tiger Woods, they have never loved him the way everyone loved Arnold Palmer. And now, the very decent Phil Mickelson has won the Masters, and he deserved to win, and we revere him, too. He won't get the media attention that Tiger always gets, but he has earned our admiration for so many reasons over the years.

(I've always relied on the UK papers for golf news on Tiger Woods, as they report on things our media doesn't. They were talking about his cursing, poor sportsmanship, and selfishness even before the bimbo eruptions took place. This Scotsman columnist echoes my sentiments when he writes, "But there is something not quite right about the idea of him pulling on the green jacket as though nothing had happened. As though the double life that deceived us all – and earned him millions of dollars into the bargain – was just another misfortune that he has somehow found the wherewithal to recover from. If chairman Billy Payne's statement on Wednesday is any indication, Augusta National aren't too excited by the prospect either. This is not an injury he is returning from. It wasn't a car crash in which he tried, like Hogan, to protect his wife. It was one in which it became clear that he had betrayed her, and the children for whom he was supposed to be a role model. While plenty of his peers are guilty of the same marital infidelities, his crime was to trade on the deception. He was a fraud who took golf for a ride. Please, let's not be sorry for him.") Exactly right.

..."As the generation of Holocaust survivors and liberators dwindles, the torch of remembrance, of bearing witness, and of education, must continue forward" - Amb.to Israel Dan Gillerman ...

Here's a wonderful story about a fine young man who's made sure that the victims of the Holocaust are remembered: "Seeking to ensure that the Jewish people don't forget the 6 million individual lives lost, Zak, 14, has launched a website and database dedicated to those who perished during the Holocaust." Click here to visit his website.

Here's some thrilling news as reported by Nealz Nuze: "Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned that Americans will be facing higher taxes or changes in their government entitlement programs. When was the last time the federal government cut an entitlement program?" Good question. And why shouldn't some cuts be made in entitlement programs? Shouldn't everyone have to sacrifice? In the same vein, this editorial at Investors Business Daily says that America has become, sadly, a nation of takers. If JFK were alive today, he might say, "Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you!"

Friday, April 09, 2010

"President Obama gave an ecumenical Easter message on Sunday. He praised Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and non-believers as the family of man. He was trying to show his tolerance for every religion except the one which builds apartments in East Jerusalem."

In a very good article on victims and oppressors, Victor Davis Hanson says "But the president seems to fail to acknowledge that there are plenty of actions an individual can take to avoid becoming part of that growing crowd of 'less fortunate.' Instead, in Obama's world, there exists a simple zero-sum melodrama of victims and oppressors:"

Thursday, April 08, 2010

More news about the so-called diplomat from Qatar. The TV news coverage this morning was practically nonexistent, while some of the print media reported on the story as if it were a joke. Sorry, but I don't find it at all amusing.

Chris Horner has a tribute to miners over at NRO's The Corner: "God bless those workers killed, their families and loved ones, and all of those who continue the work of making our nation richer, safer, and freer."

Monday, April 05, 2010

You have to see this for yourself: Investors Business Daily offers a complete list of 756 "bad things attributed to global warming", ranging from "acne, bubonic plague and a drop in circumcisions to yellow fever, whale beachings, walrus stampedes, witchcraft executions and the threat of zebra mussels." It's so ludicrous it's funny!

Neal Boortz is referring to this article when he says, "Here is the question of the day: Are we nearing a point when there are no longer enough taxpayers to support all of the tax consumers in America?"

The UK Telegraph has a column about "Psycho" and how it's still terrifying even when you've already seen it a million times. That's the sign of a great movie. And Bernard Herrmann's famous screeching violin music has been voted the scariest movie theme.

Look at the people standing in line to buy an iPad. It always amazes me that they somehow always have hundreds of dollars to spend on non-essentials but complain about the price of food or gas. Another article reports that it's "chic" to stand in long lines for these gadgets. I must be missing something here.

Friday, April 02, 2010

"Disgusted with veterinarians because they won’t treat Fido and Fluffy for free? This is a perfect example of the entitlement mentality that has bankrupted America. It is perfectly understandable, after all, our government has spoiled the non-producing populace for decades by paying for whatever people can’t afford. Want kids you can’t afford? Don’t worry, the government will bail you out. Want a house or car you can’t afford? Don’t worry, the government will bail you out. Get anything you want, the government will bail you out. Want common sense? Forget it, the government is out of stock and can’t even backorder. It’s reality check time. The government is broke. The FDIC is billions in the red. Nearly 800 banks are on the endangered list. China is ready to call in our astronomical debt which we can’t pay. And most veterinarians are not going to borrow $100,000 in student loans and spend years in school so they can treat your animals, which you can’t afford, for free. There are some tough decisions to be made by all. This is as good a place as any to start."